https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/business/international/japan-takata-ceo.ht
ID: 2780991 • Letter: H
Question
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/business/international/japan-takata-ceo.html
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/business/international/japan-takata-ceo.html a) How is the above case related to engineering management? (10 marks) b) Identify the leadership styles adopted by the Takata Company? Explain and justify your answers (8 marks) Differentiate the roles of engineers and managers in this case. Which role is more dominant? Clarify your answers. c) (12 marks) d) Identify and select TWO (2) of the management functions in this case and review each of them. (8 marks) e How would you react if you assumed the following roles? 4 marks) i) Chief Executive Officer ii Lead Design engineer i Testing engineer in the automotive company involved in this case. 4 marks) (4 marks)
Explanation / Answer
a) The case is related to Engineering Management because the defect is related to the airbags being inflated in an unexpected and in an explosive manner with projectiles being thrown inside the cabin . This untimely and unexpected activation of Airbags has engineering defect as the root cause of the problem. Any Manufacturing process has to go through series of trials and Quality Control procedures so that before the part is released for Commercial use, the Engineering Department should have completed the Standard Operating Procedures laid down by the Regulatore and its own QC Department guidelines and precautions. All these fall in the domain of the Engineering Function of the organisation.
b) Takata Company uses Laissez - Faire leadership syle as there is no control or structure in place to lead, monitor , evaluate and measure the results of the departments , This would have been the case of the Engineering Department , which may have set its own targets and goals with little or no control or intervention from the top. Too much authority may have been given to its employees with little or no higher control.
c) The Engineer's role is more technical and less of adminsterial. THe Manager's role is more of administration of resources and includes management of Engineering function. Engineers graduate to Manahgers when they acquire and exhibit managerial skills. In this case, while the shop floor engineers went about delivering their tasks, the managers should have administered the output closely to ensure that Takata Company met its higer vision and objective of Customer satisfaction and Safety. This lack of control at the higher levels led to bad quality and product failures and eventually product recalls. Managerial Function is far more superior in ensuring enginerring departments outputs are in line with Customer satisfaction and safety. Their failure has brough the company to brink of disaster. Hence , Managerial role is more dominant.
d) Controlling and Co-ordinating funtions of the Mangement. The Engineering Management role here would involve controlling and measuring the quality of the Department's output and ensuring that deviation from the desired standards are reported back to the production line and desired rectifcations are executed. The co-ordination function of the Management would ensure that the Engineering Department, QC Department and R&D Department together sync closely to ensure that the final output from the shop floor meets Customer Standards and Safety set by the Sales and Marketing Management. Without this critical Co-ordination function of the Management , each department would function independently and final output would fail customer expectations. This would have happened in the case of Takata Company, leading to its downfall.
e) i) As a Chief Executive Officer, I would adopt a three pronged approach to deal with the
a) Shareholders : To assure them upfront that necessary re structuring is in place to arrange for fund Infusion and continuity of business
b) car manufacturers: To negotiate and arrive at a cost sharing formula to share the cost of recalls for mutual benefits in the long run
c) Internal Design Engineering Department restructuring.to re-focus the critical department and organisation to ensure closer focus on processes to meet customer satisfaction and safety standards
ii) Lead Design Engineer: I would go back to the drawing board andrelook at the root cause of this defective airbag activation mechanism. Identify the reason for the current situation through a core team of Engineers, Within a timeline arrive the re designed airbag system and have it on Trial for rigorous QC procedures. Ask the Purchase Department to Change the component supplier if the fault is traced to inferior supply quality .
iii) TEsting Engineer of the Company. I would put the airbag system into a rigorous testing environment to subject it to extreme moisture and temperature conditions for extended period of time to monitor the results on the product, Reject the product if it fails to withstand these conditions and send it back to the Shop floror as reject to ensure rectification / enhancement of the system
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